WOW what a year, but we have made it!

With the festive season nearly upon us I would like to take this time to reflect on some of our major achievements/successes this year.

The year started with the ban on mobile phones in schools, which has made a big difference to our classrooms. Teaching and Learning has been so positively impacted, it has been one of the best decisions in Education that has been made in recent times.

My first panic of the year occurred when the team informed me of the annual Belsurf event that saw 1000 kids down at the beach, my nerves were gone the whole time, but what a fantastic day!

This was closely followed by a global pandemic that tested our ability to adapt and evolve to a new online world. The staff were absolutely amazing during this time, going above and beyond to meet the needs of our students. The support from the community was also amazing, their patience and understanding made life so much easier at such a difficult time.

Many would have thought that this COVID year would be a write-off and that plans would be halted, but not at Belridge. We have made some massive steps forward this year.  Our new business plan was completed and implemented across the College. The revamp of our AE program with focus areas in STEM and Humanities was put into place and is ready to go with our first Year 7 cohort for next year. Subject selection for Year 9 was implemented, the build for our new PAC is ahead of schedule and will soon be ready for handover, the development of our new fitness centre and update of our ICT facilities have all been positive changes for the college, with many more planned for 2021.

With all the difficulties, we have still managed to complete our Year 11 and 12 exams, had students carry out their workplace learning, achieved great success in OLNA, attend the Year 11 river cruise, the Year 12 ball and our Cricket and Netball camps. The completion of our bush tucker garden and work with the Dandjoo Group have also been a highlight.  We have run a full transition program for our incoming Year 7s and have many reward activities planned for the end of year for our students with good standing.

Our staff have engaged in a wealth of professional learning activities. Our 5 hours per term have been spent developing our capacity on a range of topics such as Teaching and Learning, Inclusive Education and use of EA, Mental Health, Literacy, Numeracy and ICT. We have also engaged as part of the Joondalup Learning Community Network to forward the Future Leaders Framework with our staff, as well as our Senior Management Team being involved in a suite of professional learning to develop leadership capacity across the College.

Our work with our educational partners and local businesses have also been fantastic, ECU, ABCN and Microsoft have provided a number of amazing opportunities for our students across the areas of ICT, Science and student leadership. The support from the Rotary Club, Northbridge has been outstanding, especially the donations for our Lego Club and the sponsorship of a number of students to attend Science Camp at ECU in the holidays and students’ awards at graduation.

We have a number of staff leaving us at the end of the year, many for promotion or retirement. I would like to wish them all the very best in whatever the future holds and thank them for their contributions to Belridge SC over the years. One particular mention I would like to single out is the retirement of Mary Marriott after 27 years of service to the Department of Education. Mary has been such an asset to the Maths department here at the College and we will all be very sorry to see her go, however she is definitely deserving of her retirement and I wish her all the best.

I would like to finish with the biggest thank you to each and every person who donated items, food or money to our Belridge Christmas Hamper Appeal. Your generosity has surpassed anything I could have hoped for. We have a number of families struggling at the moment and I know that this will mean so much to them and make their Christmas a little brighter. Our thanks to Foodbank WA, Coles Beldon, Spud Shed and Bakers Delight for their donations.

Wishing you all a safe and happy festive season.  Looking forward to what 2021 will hold.

Take care, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Sharon Lyon
Principal